Huge Comcast fee increase?

[Tony]

Did anyone else get a Comcast bill this month at least $30 higher than last month's? We've been averaging $88/mo for 'Digital Starter' and 'Performance Internet'. But today's bill is $119! I wish I had a copy of last month's bill to see just what has been increased and why.

[Chutney Daftcraft]

We called them to get info about broadband. Yeah, eff that. They want to charge this ridiculous fee just to turn it on, and also want me to sign a 2 year contract.

[evolsno1]

We canceled our tv service and only have internet now through Comcast. It's been 2 months and it took some getting used to, but we are saving about $100 a month. We had the Digital Premiere package plus performance internet, sports package and an HD DVR. Our bill was around $180 per month. We watch our shows through Hulu+ now. We just miss our hockey, HBO and Showtime shows, those were our biggest sacrifices.

[KatherineA]

If I didn't have my spouse, I would probably ditch the TV too.

I changed to Dish and got a pretty good deal for $49.95 per month for a year and $59.95 the second year. Dish has a minimal $19.95 plan that I could live with but Bruce could not.

I had Direct TV and they went up to nearly $90. The lowest they would go was $65 for 3-6 mo then up it would go again.
So I switched. The worst part was losing all the DVR'd stuff.

[Tony]

Satellite isn't an option here - too many trees. And so far they don't offer internet, so you have to add that price on top of whatever they charge for TV. Comcast charges extra for internet without TV, and Hulu charges $8/mo for their decent package (and the creeps are still inexplicably blocking my Google TV!). Good Luck trying to find any actual prices on the internet - searching turns up 'promotional pricing' which makes it very difficult to actually compare real prices.

I was really just wondering if this specific price jump was kosher. I'm used to prices edging up, but this is the first I've seen a whopping 33% jump all at once. Though I guess if I do the math it might be more like 30% / 2 for something like a more reasonable 10% hike each for internet and TV.

[LazerFlash]

Did anyone else get a Comcast bill this month at least $30 higher than last month's?

My wife noticed the same thing last month. Things got busy and I forgot to call to find out what happened. We had a promotional price that was SUPPOSED to be good for another 7 months, so it was a bit of a surprise. (Thanks for reminding me.)

It's all a game with these folks. I go through this nonsense with them perennially. I call and tell them how pissed off we are at how high the bill is, threaten to jump to satellite and the CSR 'finds' a promo that brings the price back down to something we can rationalize (under $100 TV/Internet). We got a really good deal last time, in part because I told the guy that I wanted the HD-DVR, but refused to pay this year's price for re-manufactured 1990's technology. He found a promo that included a free DVR for the year.

[evolsno1]

It's all a game with these folks. I go through this nonsense with them perennially.

Yea we've been through that a few times to. Always works like a charm to get the bill lower. Although its a shame that we have to jump through those hoops to get the best price.

[kkrapf]

Calling them right now. I'm paying $130 a month for what a lot of you are paying $100. Not to mention they're offering it to new customers at $80/month. Giving a preferred rate for new customers is one thing, but a $50 mark-up shows a complete lack of respect for the current customer.

[LazerFlash]

Calling them right now. I'm paying $130 a month for what a lot of you are paying $100. Not to mention they're offering it to new customers at $80/month. Giving a preferred rate for new customers is one thing, but a $50 mark-up shows a complete lack of respect for the current customer.

Agreed! One trick I've used in the past is to bypass the regular customer service wonk and ask to immediately be transferred to the subscriber retention department.

[kkrapf]

Agreed! One trick I've used in the past is to bypass the regular customer service wonk and ask to immediately be transferred to the subscriber retention department.

No dice. I'm ticked. We need the internet because of Joe's work and because I'm an addict, but we hardly use the cable tv. I'd cancel it in a second if Kensey was agreeable.

[LazerFlash]

No dice. I'm ticked.

You mean they couldn't/wouldn't do ANYTHING about reducing your bill? Seriously? That's kind of discouraging. But, when a company has a government-sponsored monopoly on anything, they get to make the rules, I guess. How high up the customer service hierarchy did you get?

[kkrapf]

You mean they couldn't/wouldn't do ANYTHING about reducing your bill? Seriously? That's kind of discouraging. But, when a company has a government-sponsored monopoly on anything, they get to make the rules, I guess. How high up the customer service hierarchy did you get?

They claimed that we are currently already on a promotional rate for our cable television and so they could not give us another 'promotion'. Yeah, right. I spoke with the retention department.

[evolsno1]

You need to go in with a plan. Research competing companies, see what they are offering to new subscribers. For example, Dish network and Frontier. the Dish has an "Everything" pack for 74.99 with HD DVR, HBO showtime ect and Frontier has internet for 14.99. Call Comcast and tell them you need to cancel your cable, when they ask why tell them you found a cheaper price from Dish. Have the package information in front of you for Dish so you know what your talking about. That deal is good for the first year on Dish, tell comcast "why would I stick with you when I can cancel and get this price from Dish and Frontier for a year?" At this point the should offer you a new deal.

[chipgallo]

Have you tried crudely written road signage?

[cindylu]

Have you tried crudely written road signage?

I love it!!

[jim surkamp]

i use comcast business service and pay about $61 a month i don't want tv just good internet. a truck recently hit the pole with my line to my house. knocing it off on both ends. i was impressed.
they came re strung it all with two hours from the first all. BUT i haven't opened ye olde monthly bill envelope yet.

[LazerFlash]

You need to go in with a plan. Research competing companies...

That makes a lot of sense, presuming that the retention folks don't already know what their competitors are offering. But, in all of the years we've had Comcast, I've never had to go to that length. Simply calling and telling the rep that we were dissatisfied with the cost, needed to reduce our monthly bills, and cable would have to be the thing to go if something better couldn't be worked out. Once, I even mentioned that all of the adults in the household were unemployed and we needed the Internet to facilitate our job search.

[JoeB]

I went and compared my bill from January to Feb using the pdfs for my bills on their site.

Changes I saw:

**I noted on the January Bill, the 5th page says price hikes start for service beginning on March 1st.

Cable bill went up 9 dollars. (digital premier)
HDR service went up 1 dollar. (15.95-16.95)
Internet went up 3 dollars (55 - 58 blast)

I just called them on the 21st and asked to get my bill down (was closing in on 180). Offered a deal for digital premier and blast for 119. Another 10 for HDR service. I'll probably be calling again this 21st to whine some more.

[Riverwoman]

Ah, I remember the good ol' days when Shannondale had no cable and the rooftop antenna brought in 3-5 local stations for FREE! We did a lot more house work and yard work back in those days!

[lar]

Ive never been too good at getting reductions but nowadays everyone is on to this 2 year committment thing so you kind of have to get your internet and tv and phone contracts lined up if you want to make any big sweeping changes.